


Disconnected

by ester_inc



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark, Disturbing Themes, M/M, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-03
Updated: 2011-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-15 08:11:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/158829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ester_inc/pseuds/ester_inc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mental Hospital AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	Disconnected

Eames is a dear; the staff adores him. He can be impossible sometimes, of course, but for the most part, he's a peach. He's charming and friendly, flirts outrageously but rarely causes trouble, takes his meds without a fuss, and has a positive influence on other patients.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that he killed three people in cold blood. Then again -- technically, he didn't.

It was one of the others.

 

-

 

Eames gets along with everyone but isn't particularly attached to anyone. If the staff had to pick, they'd say he spends most time with Old Man Saito, who's been at the institution for over two decades, and young Robert Fischer, who doesn't remember killing his father, but has tried to commit suicide twice.

They play games, mostly. Eames is fond of cards, but Saito dislikes them, preferring chess, which Robert refuses to play and gets agitated watching others at. They end up playing a lot of board games.

Eames has an amiable doctor-patient relationship with the staff psychologist, Cobb, though he privately thinks it's rich, getting psychological help from a man obsessed with his wife's suicide. He's not sure whether it's supposed to be a secret or not; everyone knows. Eames is enough of a gentleman to never bring it up.

He chats with the psychiatrist in charge of his medication -- Yusuf -- like they're old friends, and has Ariadne, the new psychiatric nurse in training, completely wrapped around his fingers.

He has the whole staff charmed, just so.

 

-

 

The others don't want to share their names; Eames speaks for them. Cobb says that their refusal to take part in the treatment lowers the chances of Eames getting better.

He sounds frustrated.

 

-

 

Arthur doesn't like being touched, but he looks at Eames like he knows him, tilting his head at him like a bird, and Eames can't look away.

He abandons socializing and board games practically overnight, focusing on Arthur, on drawing him out. Arthur never speaks, but his eyes are intent on Eames; awake.

 

-

 

"Hello, little bird," Eames says, his voice soft.

Arthur doesn't say anything in return, but when Eames gently takes his hand, he doesn't flinch, just looks at their joined hands like he's seeing something foreign and yet familiar, an equation he used to know.

 

-

 

Eames gets agitated when Arthur ignores him, lost in his head, and he yells at Yusuf, demanding to know if he changed Arthur's medication. He gets violent when the orderlies try to calm him down, and gets to spend the rest of the day in solitary.

 

-

 

When Cobb asks, Eames tells him it's because they all think Arthur is special.

The look on Cobb's face is calm as he expresses concern over what he calls Eames' "fixation" on Arthur. Eames feels something restless and cold in the pit of his stomach, thinking, _they're going to take him away from me_.

He smiles, making it look real, and lies until the pinched look around Cobb's eyes eases.

 

-

 

He finds out that Arthur has been in and out of institutions since he was a teenager. It doesn't sit right with Eames, makes his hands itch for retaliation, for blood. He wants someone to pay.

Arthur is drawing invisible mazes on the surface of the table with his fingers when Eames covers his hand with his own, waiting until he looks up before saying,

"If you wanted me to, I would kill for you."

There's something in Arthur's eyes, in the tilt of his head, like he understands what Eames is saying, like he's considering it. Then he looks back down with the tiniest shake of his head, as though he somehow finds Eames' offer both endearing and disappointing.

He's saying, _close, but not close enough_.

Eames feels like he missed a cue.

 

-

 

Arthur's only possession is a red die. He rolls it again, and again, sometimes hours at a time.

"I don't know what it means," Arthur says. His voice is hoarse from disuse, barely more than a whisper.

It's the first time Eames has ever heard him speak.

 

-

 

Eames sits with Arthur, playing with a fake poker chip he snatched from one of the board games. He makes it travel over his fingers, flips it deftly from one knuckle to the next, over and over. He could have been a magician, he thinks, making the chip disappear and then reappear from behind Arthur's ear.

Arthur doesn't seem to notice, his eyes fixed on his die, but Eames doesn't mind. He'll show it to Arthur some other day, maybe make him smile, or roll his eyes. It could happen, he thinks. One day.

He watches Arthur's sharp profile, the practiced flick of his wrist as he rolls his die, the clatter of plastic muted on the linoleum.

 

-

 

At night, Eames murmurs sweet, violent promises against Arthur's ear. He's not supposed to be in Arthur's room, but he can't stay away, can't stand not having Arthur within his sight.

One night, he says,

"I'll take you out of this place, and then you'll be mine, just mine. We'll be happy."

And Arthur says,

"Yes."

 

-

 

Getting out of the facility isn't as easy as getting into Arthur's room at night, and he ends up breaking a guard's neck and slamming Ariadne head first into the wall before they're out. There was a smear of blood on the wall as she slid down, but unlike the guard, she'll probably survive. He doesn't feel sorry for hurting her -- he's not even sure she's real.

Arthur is real, even if nothing else is, and that's all that matters to him. He made a promise; he's keeping it.

 

-

 

He's getting it right this time, he knows he is. Arthur's laying on the bed, looking up at him with a vacant smile, like he knows they're going home.

"It's alright, darling," he says, brushing a kiss on Arthur's temple before gently pressing the muzzle of the gun there.

"It's just a dream," he says, and pulls the trigger.

 

 

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [When We Die in a Dream, We Wake Up.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/578792) by [numbuh9494 (flyingonthefriendshipship)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingonthefriendshipship/pseuds/numbuh9494)




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